Beware rattling pierogies

Starting today, the Church Brew Works marks its 16th anniversary in Lawrenceville as it usually does -- by dishing out its most popular pierogies, the rattlesnake and cactus ones.

Outrageous, right?

They and other of Chef Jason Marrone's creations have appeared on Food Network's "Outrageous Food."

He used to buy snakes on the hoof, if you can say that about snakes. But deboning a snake is so "ridiculous," he says, that he now buys the boneless meat from Prairie Harvest Specialty Foods in South Dakota (though he believes the snakes are caught in Arizona). Mixed with fresh cactus and stuffed into dough, it makes for the most popular pierogies at the Church, where customers return for them year after year.

The pierogies will be served with some other special dishes -- and a special beer, a 9-percent-alcohol Thunderhop Extreme -- Nov. 8 through 17.

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